So close

I love low budget movies with a great story. This movie really has an interesting story to tell. The director does a great job telling the story in such a way the small budget doesn't harm the movie but alas it all falls apart in the dialogue. The acting is doable if you realise the poor chap had to work with that script.

We are asked to believe that the brits selected their best man to go up. In 1958 this would have been a veteran from WWII with years of experience or someone trained by them. This Guy even flew top secret missions for the americans.

People from that time are proud people that would call a serious wound just a mere scratch. The golden generation kept their troubles to themselves. Many of them had PTSD and never complained. They were very resourceful and would adapt quite easily. Especially the british wanted to live up to that stiff upper lip cliché.

That's why I have a hard time accepting the Guy in the movie, a british officer with years of experience as a fighter pilot, acts like a millennial who just lost his xanax.

If mission control tells you that you are losing oxygen/fuel and need to take action to stop it you don't go complaining to them about the hardware for a full minute before you finally do what they are asking. Throughout the entire movie the pilot acts like this is the first time he's been in the capsule and keeps punching sensitive,broken instruments like a toddler with a tantrum.

Even the best can be fooled by CIA / KGB but they should have portrayed the pilot more as a pioneer who knew business instead of a whimpering moron. If you had the idea that the astronaut was fighting the odds and failed because the system was rigged from the start you could have rooted for him but as it is now I was happy his oxygen level was down to 4% ... so he would almost be out of his misery.